the whole person

I'm off to study shortly, but something hit me this morning and I'd like to share it!

Last semester, a professor of mine expressed her qualms with the fact that there's always been this great divide between mental health professionals and medical doctors. So many mental health professionals are solely concerned with the mind and so many medical doctors are solely concerned with the body. But what happens to one affects the other since they are, in fact, connected. No matter the setting, we need to look at the whole person.

That's why I think it's time to take my sugar free year up another notch.

So I've got this sugar thing down. Thanks to sugar's many names and perpetual need to show up in the most surprising of products, I've really cut back on eating anything that comes in cans, bags or boxes. If I do, I read the entire ingredients list and I don't go for it if I'm not completely sure it has no sugar. But as I ultimately head toward taking care of my body the way a body really needs to be taken care of, there are a few more steps I'll need to take.

1. Prayer. I pray -- but I need to be more consistent. If I could only get my sleep schedule on track, I'd be up early enough to go to daily morning mass. Which brings us to...

2. Sleep. Oh, how I enjoy sleeping. But I a) need to get to bed earlier so that b) I can get at least eight hours but still arise early enough in the morning so I won't need to rush to get to work.

3. Exercise. I do -- but I need to be more consistent.

I figure if I'm taking this year to eliminate my dependence on the excessive sugar the food industry says we should all be ok eating, I may as well work on some of the rest of what's necessary as part of a healthy life.